Today varieties of sensors are available including analog and digital sensors. Different kinds of sensors or transducers are used in various applications and for many different uses. The sensor output signals need to be appropriately processed to determine relevant information. For example, the sensor output signals often need to be amplified before processing the same. Generally, the sensor output signals are processed using external devices.
However smart sensors or digital sensors are available with signal processing electronics associated with the sensors themselves. In this case, there is no external signal processing electronics required to process the sensor output. In an example, the signal processing electronics is located within the cable associated with the sensor.
The analog sensors are often simple and economical, but they need external electronics to process the sensor output. Generally the signal processing electronics is associated with device to which the sensors are being connected. As the signal processing electronics is associated with an external device, the connection is rigid and any change in the nature of the sensor or requirement to adapt more sensors is not feasible and it becomes necessary to alter the configuration of the external device. Whereas digital sensors do not need any separate signal processing electronics for processing the sensor output signals. While using an alternate sensor or using additional sensors, the digital sensor interfacing unit or the device to which the sensors are connected does not require any alteration in their configuration. However the digital sensors are expensive and are bulkier. Hence it will be beneficial to design a mechanism that could combine the advantages of both analog and digital sensors and, based on the particular application, a user may then use either analog or digital sensors.
Thus there exists a need to provide a sensor interface capable of adapting digital and analog sensors.